We've always packed our sandwiches in plastic baggies, right? They are convenient, easy-to-use, and really cheap. Are they really, though?
Let's find out! Imagine there are two guys: Ziploc Zane, who has a wife and two kids, and he supports his family with his job as a sales consultant for a large company. Next is Eco Moe, who has a wife and four kids, and he has his own eco-friendly store.

Zane has two school-going children that take home-packed lunches and snacks to school every day. Zane doesn't like cafeteria food, so he takes lunch from home too. Between the three of them, they use about 1400 plastic baggies per year for lunch and snacks.*
(Assuming he works for 300 days a year, so he uses 600 baggies, and if the kids go to school for 200 days a year, that's 2 kids x 400 which is 800 - so a total of around 1400 baggies)
Whenever Zane's wife Zoey goes to the grocery store, she usually buys sandwich sized baggies in 150-packs, which retail for around $6, and snack sized baggies in 150-packs, which retail for around $5. Doing the math, she would need a total of 5 boxes of sandwich sized bags and 5 boxes of snack sized bags, at a cost of $55 per year.
Now for Eco Moe. Since he has an eco-store, he has lunch in his office from his own personal fridge. His four kids on the other hand take lunches from home. Moe's wife Mary used plastic baggies at one point in time, but one day, she found out about reusable sandwich bags which were sandwich baggies, but minus the plastic, dishwasher safe, and they could be used again and again. Plus, it came in neat colors and patterns!
Moe's kids go to the same school district as Zane's, and they take a sandwich and snack every time. Between the four of them, that would be 1600 baggies per year, had they been using plastic baggies, which would have cost them around $65.

Luckily, Mary uses reusable sandwich bags. She bought them for her family at around $8 for one reusable sandwich bag and $6 for one reusable snack bag, bringing it to $14 per person. This brought her total cost for 4 people to $56 a year, which is $9 less than what she would have spent on plastic baggies! Each reusable bag lasts her at least one year, if not more.

One day, Zoey bumps into Mary, who is renewing her reusable sandwich bag stock, and Zoey finds the idea really cool. She does some quick math: if she were to buy a similar set of bags for her family, the cost could come out again to $14 per person. Multiply that by three and that comes out to a total of $42, $13 less than what she would have spent on plastic bags.

So there you have it - not only are reusable sandwich bags safer for your family and the environment, they save you money, too!

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